Tuesday, July 26, 2011

New Sumner Schools Director Tours Vol State

The new Sumner County Director of Schools had his first tour of the Vol State campus earlier this week. Dr. Del Phillips took the helm of the school system in April. He will be working closely with Vol State through many initiatives, including the local P-16 group, which brings together secondary school administrators and the college to share information and develop partnerships in education. He toured the campus with Dr. Nichols and Dr. Scism.

According to the Sumner County Schools website Dr. Phillips’ career as an educator began at South Panola High School in Batesville, Mississippi where he taught Cooperative Education. He soon advanced to Assistant Principal Intern, Assistant to the Superintendent and ultimately Principal/Athletic Director of the 1,275-student high school. He was most recently superintendent of Columbus City Schools in Mississippi.

“We have to find out how children in Sumner County learn, how they accept information and how they give that information back to us so we can assess their progress,” said Dr. Phillips. “That’s where leadership comes into play; listening to principals, teachers and students. Often students are left out of that process. We need to ask them, ‘What’s working for you? What made last week’s lesson good? What helped? What didn’t?’ We must give validity to what students do and say about our schools. They are our primary customers.”